Attig Law Firmhttp://www.attiglawfirm.com
More Information and More Power in More Ways to More Veterans.Tue, 29 Sep 2015 22:48:43 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.6.1The Power to Grow: Coming Changes at the Veterans Law Bloghttp://www.attiglawfirm.com/inspire/power-grow-coming-changes-veterans-law-blog/
http://www.attiglawfirm.com/inspire/power-grow-coming-changes-veterans-law-blog/#commentsFri, 08 May 2015 11:14:47 +0000http://www.attiglawfirm.com/?p=5932Over 40,000 Veterans come to the Veterans Law Blog each month.

And most of you reach out to me by email or on social media. You tell me what you like about the Veterans Law Blog, and you tell me how it’s helped you Take Back the Power in Your VA Claim.

A good number of you have told me that you have won your VA Claim or Appeal with the information that you found on the Veterans Law Blog.

I take all of your feedback – positive and not so positive – seriously.

Two consistent themes I have been hearing this year are these:

1) You want a cleaner look to the blog – you want all the ads and popups to go away

2) You want an easier way to find all the content that is buried deep in this blog.

I took that feedback to heart, and for several weeks, I have been working on a new “home” for the Veterans Law Blog.

Take a look at the video and tell me what you think of the new look and features for the Veterans Law Blog.

What Else is Coming from the Veterans Law Blog?

I have a “5 Step Plan” to expand the depth and quality of information you get on the Veterans Law Blog. Here are the 5 Steps:

Step 1: Restructure and re-organize the 700+ posts so you can find what you need, with less interruption from popups and ads. (I’ve got my ‘eye’ on 6 disabled Veterans that know the coding language to make this happen)

Step 2: Add a Customer Support position – we will work with VA Vocational Rehab programs to find a disabled or unemployed Veteran to staff this position – who can more immediately respond to phone calls and emails when you have questions about what you read.

Step 3: Add NEW writers to bring more voices to the Veterans Law Blog.

Step 4: Upgrade our Technology – adding new servers and upgrade our software – to deliver the information you want or need and not all the other stuff.

Step 5: Incorporate NEW ways to deliver information – I have 10 new eBooks I’m working on, a podcast series and “Quick Tip Video” series in the works.

What’s Taking so Long?

The 2 things that hold us all back: time and money.

My day job is an attorney – I Change the Way Veterans Experience the VA Claims Process.

I’m building a unique kind of law firm – one without walls. One that uses technology tools to cut the time a Veteran waits on the VA from 3 years to under 1 year. One that allows Veterans easier – and more – local access to the quality legal representation that Veterans have come to expect from the Attig Law Firm.

It’s a massive undertaking, and I’ll tell you more about it another day.

So I work on improving the Veterans Law Blog in my extra time – usually at night or early in the morning when the family is all asleep.

And all the revenue from book and video sales goes into a fund to create more information, more books, and more videos. I don’t want to become like those VSOs that spend all their massive amounts of revenue and don’t fulfill their core mission.

So rather than spend book and video revenue on growing the site, I use ads to do that. And while they provide a bit of revenue to keep the Veterans Law Blog, they don’t provide enough revenue to GROW the Veterans Law Blog.

How can you help the Veterans Law Blog Grow?

I received an email from a Veteran – former Army Captain and Maintenance Test Pilot. Here’s what he wrote:

“I want to contribute to the Veterans Law Blog in lieu of what had been my 25+ years of DAV contributions. I learned more in a month from the blog than the DAV ever taught me. You are making a difference. Please don’t lose your energy and passion!”

If you would like to donate to help the Veterans Law Blog, please click here. Every donation will go directly to the 5 Steps listed above – not a single penny will ever go in my pocket.

]]>http://www.attiglawfirm.com/inspire/power-grow-coming-changes-veterans-law-blog/feed/1If lawyers were paid by the word, we could charge $100 for this one.http://www.attiglawfirm.com/shoot/va-claims-credibility-evidence/
http://www.attiglawfirm.com/shoot/va-claims-credibility-evidence/#commentsThu, 23 Apr 2015 08:55:39 +0000http://www.attiglawfirm.com/?p=4403“The Board concludes that the Veteran’s statements are not credible”

Have you seen that phrase in your BVA Decision? Or in a Ratings Decision from the VA Regional Office?

If so, I’m willing to bet it made you mad: “How dare they call me a liar” might have been your angry response.

Well, don’t worry too much – most findings like that are not calling a witness or a Veteran a “liar”.

Legal credibility refers to something much different than lying or truth-telling.

In this post, I want to give you a high-level overview of what it means for evidence to be credible.

Legal credibility is no different than credibility in the real world.

It is, in its simplest sense, a “bulls**t” meter.

When someone tells you something – anything – you evaluate whether they know what they are talking about by – consciously or sub-consciously, considering these 3 things.

Perception:

If someone saw, witnessed, or experienced something, they are far more credible than someone who didn’t see or witness something.

Here’s my favorite example.

You go in to get surgery on your appendix, but are under anesthesia. During that surgery, the doctor used a dirty rag to clean the incision and you got an infection.

At the trial, if you testify that the doctor used a dirty rag, your testimony will not be credible – you were under anesthesia and could not see the incident.

Doesn’t mean you are lying – has nothing to do with lying – it just means that your testimony about what you could not actually observe is less credible than someone that could actually observe that same incident

Bias:

Something that is said by a person with an interest in the outcome is less credible than something said by someone without a dog in the fight.

It’s hard to find bias in a VA Claim – the closest you can come is arguing that a particular doctor had a vested interest in the outcome of the C&P exam (other than the fact that his bread is buttered by the bureaucracy that denied your claim, ironically).

Integrity:

This isn’t integrity like “truth-telling”, or “honest”, though sometimes it could be. It’s the integrity of a set of facts. You know that feeling where something about a buddy’s story “doesn’t add up”? It’s usually because there is a fact in the chain missing: because a fact in the story feels like it is missing, the story doesn’t have integrity.

Architects talk about structural integrity – the ability of a building to hold itself together. When the hull of a ship is breached, it has lost its integrity – its ability to stay together.

The above scenario may have happened exactly as you said. The fact that it lacks integrity doesn’t mean you’re lying. Doesn’t have anything to do with lying or truth-telling. Its just that all the facts don’t add up the way you told it.

The VA Form 21-4138 is just a blank piece of paper – in reality, it has as much legal value in your VA Claim as a postcard from your Mom’s last visit to San Francisco. In other words, none.

A BVA judge is going to give evidence that is sworn “under penalty of perjury” more weight than evidence that is just “true and correct to the best of my knowledge” (the language in the VA Form 21-4138).

Tip #2: Corroborate any Lay Evidence you Submit.

If more than one lay witness – or more than one piece of lay evidence – reinforces the same fact, than it is said in the law to be a corroborated fact.

The Videos and Guidebooks in this Training Module will teach you how to use Lay Evidence to demonstrate the Frequency, Chronology and Severity of your Service-Connected injury.

Corroborated facts are more reliable because they remove the 3 problems above (Perception problems, bias problems, and factual integrity) from the equation.

But it’s not enough to just have more than one witness say the same thing. Corroboration is so much more than that.

To properly corroborate Lay Evidence demonstrating the facts of the Impairment Rating Pillar, for example, you have to fortify the Veteran’s statement with additional evidence of the Frequency, Chronology, and Severity of the Symptoms and Limitations that the Veteran experiences.

I show Veterans how to do this when developing their own claims and appeals in my Training Video and Guidebooks: How to File a VA Claim

]]>http://www.attiglawfirm.com/shoot/va-claims-credibility-evidence/feed/6Did you plug the power cord in? All about VA Benefits Eligibility.http://www.attiglawfirm.com/shoot/va-benefits-eligibility/
http://www.attiglawfirm.com/shoot/va-benefits-eligibility/#commentsWed, 15 Apr 2015 08:55:09 +0000http://www.attiglawfirm.com/?p=4354Ever had your computer “stop working”, and then call customer service or tech support — only to find out you didn’t plug it in?

That’s basically how it is for Veterans that get denied for being “ineligible” for VA disability compensation.

Now, I have looked at hundreds – if not thousands – of VA Claims Files, and I honestly don’t see many claims denied because the Veteran is not eligible for service connected disability compensation.

But that does not mean that we won’t verify that you have proved this element in your VA claim or appeal.

I’m going to distill the eligibility criteria into a few easy questions – if you are still getting denied as ineligible after working through these questions, then I really think that you might have a bigger problem in your VA disability claim that an attorney will have to help you with.

What would you like to know about VA Benefits eligibility that isn’t in this post? Feel free to comment, below.

Question #1: Did you serve in the active duty military?

Make sure that you include the right amount of 5-Star Evidence to show that you served in one the major branches (or a couple odd branches, like commissioned officers of the NOAA and the Public Health Service). This is usually accomplished by a copy of your DD-214, but sometimes you will need more proof.

If you served in the National Guard, you are going to want to make sure that your callup to active duty was a “federal” callup and not a state governor calling you up to active duty. The former will give you eligibility for service connected disability compensation through the VA. The latter will not.

Question #2: Did your injury occur while on active duty?

For service-connected disability eligibility purposes, it doesn’t matter WHERE you were injured. All the matters is the injury or incident which caused your medical condition have occurred between your date of entry to active service and your date of discharge.

Question #3: These situations take away eligibility.

Do you have any of these situations in your VA Claim? Its important to know that these remove your eligibility – if you can fix the situation (by getting a discharge upgrade, for example), you can become eligible again.

Drug, Alcohol and Tobacco Use:The VA likes to deny any claim where drug use is even remotely at issue – on the grounds that they think the law removes a Veteran’s eligibility if they drank, smoked, or used illegal drugs. They are not always right to do that: there are plenty of situations where such situations can be service-connected. Do yourself a favor: get a lawyer that understands the Allen v. Principi case.

How do you know if the VA is going to claim this? Simple: if the military service did a “Line of Duty” investigation and concluded that your injury is the result of “willful misconduct”, then you may be ineligible. The opposite is true, too – if the military branch concluded that your injury was NOT the result of willful misconduct, the VA is largely stuck with that conclusion.

Bad Conduct Discharge: The only type of discharge that should disqualify you from service-connected disability benefits is the so-called “Bad-Conduct” or “Dishonorable” discharge.

There are, however, ways to upgrade your discharge after military service – the Attig Law Firm does not handle these types of cases, but give us a holler and we can try to get you the names of some attorneys that do.

For example, are you a LGBT soldier discharged dishonorably under “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”? You should be able to get a discharge upgrade in those situations, I would think.

***INSIDER TIP: Did you know that even if you got a “bad-conduct” or “dishonorable” discharge, if you are the victim of a Military Sexual Trauma, you are still entitled to free VA medical treatment for the injuries that resulted from that MST? Just go into your nearest VA Medical Center and get enrolled for VA Healthcare. If they give you any “flak” about eligibility, just have them take a look at VHA Health Administration Directive 2010-33 (July 2010).

AWOL: Did your injury occur while you were Absent Without Leave for more than 180 days? You are, by law, not eligible….UNLESS…there are “compelling circumstances to warrant the prolonged unauthorized absence.”

Jail: If you are currently in jail, you are still eligible to seek a grant of service connection. You just won’t receive all of your VA Disability Compensation while you are in prison. There are a lot of “ins and outs” on this one – call an attorney.

Summary of how to prove up Pillar 1:

#1: Get 5-Star Evidence that shows you were on active duty in the Federal military.

#2: If you are a reservist or Guard-member, be prepared to show that your injury occurred while on active duty.

#3: Deal with any of the “Eligibility Exclusions” – FIRST. If you can’t show you are eligible, it doesn’t matter if you drank a glass of Agent Orange – the VA will not listen to a word you say.

Share]]>http://www.attiglawfirm.com/shoot/va-benefits-eligibility/feed/2Monthly Subscriptions available for “How to File a VA Claim” Training.http://www.attiglawfirm.com/uncategorized/how-to-file-a-va-claim-2/
http://www.attiglawfirm.com/uncategorized/how-to-file-a-va-claim-2/#commentsThu, 19 Feb 2015 06:05:49 +0000http://www.attiglawfirm.com/?p=5784Writing posts like this one are a challenge to me. On one hand, I don’t want to sound all sales-y and smarmy.

On the other hand, I know that the How to File a VA Claim Training Guide is some of the BEST training available for Veterans that want to file their own VA Claim – and get it taken care of quickly by the VA.

In fact, as far as I know, it’s the ONLY training where Vets can get all the info they need to prepare, file and develop their OWN Fully Developed VA Claim.

Can you believe that? The VA, DAV, VFW, American Legion…all these MASSIVELY WEALTHY VSOs out there, and not a single one of them teaches Vets how to “do it themselves”. Unbelievable!

And so I want to tell you about it.

Here’s the problem – many of you have told me that the price tag for this training takes too big a bite out of your wallet.

I don’t make a single penny in profit off the sale of these materials. Every dollar goes into a fund to create MORE materials.

The success of the “Put it to Rest! Your VA Sleep Apnea Claim” enabled me to work with a top video production company in Dallas to create a full hour of VA Claims filing training – so you can do it right, the first time. The proceeds from the sale of this Training Material will help fund my “How to File a VA Appeal” Guide….a MASSIVE project that I’ve already started writing.

Not a dime goes into my pocket.

So here’s what I did – I pulled out my “How to Write Internet Code” Book and created….

A Monthly Subscription to How to File a VA Claim Training Materials.

Here’s how it works.

You sign up for 3 recurring payments to your credit card – one payment each month for the next 3 months.

I’ll deliver the materials to you in a logical sequence each month.

I broke the training into 3 segments.

Here’s what you will get and learn each month – the same exact content as the Full Training Guide – staggered so you can work on one piece a month:

Click here – or on the image above – to see what you get in this monthly subscription to “How to File a VA Claim”.

What Veterans are saying about “How to File a VA Claim” so far.

This package has only been out for 2 weeks, but I’m already starting to get some feedback – I’ve asked a former VA Rater and a couple Vets to do full reviews for the blog, so stay tuned for more info.

The other day, Veteran Michael O. posted this on Google+ about the “How to File a VA Claim” Training Materials:

Veteran Joe B. said this in an email to me:

“I appreciate all that you are doing to empower vets …You are one of very few that I am aware of, who is doing anything to help me and the millions like me who are owed a debt by our nation”

A Veteran who asked me to remain anonymous wrote this to me:

“The Training Package will help me to submit my claim in a concise, clear manner. I’ve been reading your blog for a few months and I look forward to it daily. Thank you…”

Learn more about the How to File a VA Claim Package by clicking here – sign up to get several emails where I will walk you through what you get and what I will teach in this hour long training video (accompanied by a workbook and 4 FREE eBook add-ons).

You can also click on the image below to learn more.

]]>http://www.attiglawfirm.com/uncategorized/how-to-file-a-va-claim-2/feed/1Join a Live Google Hangout with Chris Attig – todayhttp://www.attiglawfirm.com/ebooks/how-to-file-a-va-claim/filing-a-va-claim/
http://www.attiglawfirm.com/ebooks/how-to-file-a-va-claim/filing-a-va-claim/#respondFri, 30 Jan 2015 15:41:24 +0000http://www.attiglawfirm.com/?p=5743The fine folks over at SyncLab Media have offered to host a Google+ Live Hangout on Air, where I will be available to discuss the newest addition to the Veterans Law Blog Bookstore…..the “How to File a VA Claim Training Package”.

One of my 2015 Goals is to have more Live Video Interaction with ya’ll…you guys ask some GREAT questions about VA Claims and Benefits, and I’d much rather talk to you than write lengthy posts on Facebook and Google+

So let’s see how the online video interaction goes….

We Will Discuss Filing a VA Claim.

Not appealing a VA Ratings Decision. Not CUE and not TDIU.

We are going to focus on the most basic thing: Filing a VA Claim.

I’ll explain to you why this Training Material is necessary, what I will teach you in the materials, how it will help you to Change the Way You Experience the VA Claims Process, and….

….for those that watch live, I will share a SPECIAL offer.

Here are the Details:

When: January 30, 2015, 10:30 am (Central Time)

Where: Google+ Live Hangout on Air (Visit the Veterans Law Blog on Google+ or just follow the video here)

Upon further investigation, the bullet had pierced the aluminum covering of the attic fan, knicked one of the blades of the attic fan, and impacted on a plywood board laying in the attic.

Had the bullet not caught the ceiling fan blade, it would have crashed through the ceiling in the kitchen and struck whoever happened to be making dinner.

Had the bullet come down a few feet to the left and it would have struck my step-son in his bed.

This bullet came from one of my neighbors – one of those 2-bit nimrods that think they are a cowboy just because they live in Texas….

… apparently he thought it would be a really good idea to celebrate the 4th of July by shooting a .40 caliber pistol into the air.

Guns Have No Place in New Year or 4th of July Celebrations.

Bullets kill people. This should come as no surprise.

But many people forget this on holidays like New Years’ Eve and 4th of July.

Irresponsible gun owners decide to do their best impersonation of Yosemite Sam having a ‘rooting, ‘tooting good time, and fire off a few rounds into the sky.

One of the Top 3 rules of Gun Safety is to “know your backstop”. It’s taught in every gun safety course. Every hunters education course.

If you don’t know what your bullet is going to strike – or what it will strike if it goes through the target – then you do not have a good backstop.

The “sky” is not a good backstop.

Don’t shoot guns into the sky.

What goes up WILL come down.

Celebratory Gunfire Kills People.

7 Year old Brendon Mackey was instantly killed July 4th, 2013, when some moron fired their gun into the air. The moron probably doesn’t even know he killed a child by having a “rootin-tootin'” good time that year.

“From 1985 through 1992, 118 people were treated at King/Drew for [celebratory gunfire] injuries on those holidays and 38 of them died, Dr. Gary J. Ordog and his colleagues reported recently in the Journal of Trauma. A full 75% of the survivors suffered severe long-term disabilities, the doctors reported, including paraplegia, quadriplegia, seizures and chronic pain.”

Shooting a gun in the air to celebrate New Years – or the 4th of July – is just stupid.

What goes up, comes down.

And if it’s a bullet that comes down, the bullet will likely kill another person. They come down with the same velocity that sent them up.

For those of you thinking that you are the exception to the rule, and that you alone can safely shoot your pistol into the air without fear of it hitting someone, please take these 2 steps:

1) Have your name and address engraved on the bullet

2) Call the police and let them know where you will be standing when you shoot your gun into the air. That way they know where to start looking when someone in your neighborhood or town is killed.

Better yet, post your name and address here so your neighbors will know that they have an irresponsible gun-owner living among them.

What to do About Celebratory Gunfire this New Years’ Eve or July 4th.

I love these trigger locks…I have one on every firearm.

Listen, I got nothing against guns.

I have spent my life around firearms – to this day, I use them (as a hunter), collect them (retired police issue revolvers), and until this past November, dealt them (historical military curios and relics).

I believe that the single greatest threat to gun ownership rights comes not from politicians, or anti-gun activists….but from irresponsible gun-owners.

We have got to be responsible about our firearms.

If you own guns, be responsible: refuse to allow anyone – including yourself – to shoot off celebratory gun-fire.

Lock ’em up…there’s no need for guns to be out at New Years’ Eve celebrations.

* If you hear celebratory gun-fire, make note of the location and call “911” immediately.

If you witness celebratory gunfire, call the police immediately.

(Scared to call the police on a friend of yours who won’t stop shooting his/her gun or rifle in the air? You have a strange way of picking your friends if you allow them to engage in behavior like this).

Ask the police to arrest the offender and not just write a ticket.

Whether the bullet strikes someone or not, this could be considered an “assault” in most jurisdictions in the United States.

Arresting people who are reckless with guns may well save the life of a child in your neighborhood.

At the very least, it takes an irresponsible gun-owner off the streets.

* This post is republished every July 4 and December 31st…and by the way, just because I like the trigger-locks mentioned in this article doesn’t mean they are right for you. So do your own homework, choose the gunlock that is right for you and your situation…but whatever you do, keep your guns locked when not in use.

Today, I’m going to tell you a little something about the Attig Law Firm’s VA Compensation Review Process – the process we follow when you request a consultation from the Attig Law Firm – or what we call “The ALF”.

Our VA Disability Law Firm is FLOODED with calls.

The ALF gets hundreds of calls and requests for consultations in VA Disability Compensation claims — even in the slow weeks.

Although, we do have a business to run here – I am a capitalist, after all. And if I don’t keep my business profitable, I can’t pay my employees – the people that rely on me for their pay, and their sense of fulfillment through their work – will be left without a job.

And without a profitable business, I can’t help ANY Veterans.

So I have to make decisions. As much as we’d love to, there’s simply not enough man-power or hours in the day to help everyone.

To help you communicate BETTER with us, and to make it more likely that we will offer a consultation, here are the steps my team follows – in every single consultation request.

Step 1: The ALF Team sees every Consultation Request.

It’s taken me YEARS to organize and produce all of the information in this MASSIVE Training Guide – find out how to get your copy by clicking on the image.

What should you put in the consultation request form? Answer the questions, first of all, as best you can, and give us a good sense of why you need legal help.

If a Veteran doesn’t take the time to help us understand why they need legal help, it’s harder for us to figure out whether we CAN help.

Consultation Requests that say only “I need help on my Veterans Benefits Claims” or “Tell me how to file a VA claim” leave us scratching our head as to what kind of help you really need – and while we return every consultation request with a phone call, what you tell us in that initial contact makes a WORLD of difference.

Take your time and write a good consultation request … you don’t have to be perfect or use the right legal words.

It doesn’t even need to be long.

We just need to get a sense of what is going on in your appeal.

Step #2: We make an initial decision whether or not we are going to request your C-File.

Once you submit a consultation request to my team, someone will call you to do a follow up call and get a little more information.

I have told my team to make this decision within 48 business hours of the time you submitted the consultation request.

And they are getting pretty close to meeting that goal.

The information you give us is crucial – we have to make a HARD decision at this point. Ultimately, the decision comes down to this:

Is this the type of VA Disability Appeal that the Attig Law Firm is best situated to help with?

The Veterans Law Blog Bookstore – where you can find and get copies of our 10 Veterans Law eBooks, Training Videos, Training Packages, Forms, and more!

For a great many of you, the answer to that question is “no”. Why aren’t we the best situated to help you? A bunch of reasons….here are a few:

* You haven’t received a VA Ratings Decision that can be appealed

* Your issue is something that I think you can resolve on your own. In this case, you are going to want to use the free resources – there are over 600 posts on the Veterans Law Blog that are yours for the searching. You might also want to check out our Veterans Law Books in the Bookstore – these books contain 7 years of my experience battling the VA – all written to teach lay-men, not lawyers, how to better understand and navigate the byzantine VA Claims and Appeals Process.

* Your case is not something we have experience handling, or want to handle. FTCA Claims, Discharge Upgrades, employment issues, and some other types of VA Disability compensation claims come to mind. There are some cases I like handling (see, below), and there are some cases that I don’t like handling.

* Sad to say, but some folks contacting us for legal help are just jerks – and life is too short to deal with jerks. Fortunately, this is a VERY small number of Veterans, but I want you to know that we do choose our clients as much as they choose us…and we choose people that we enjoy working with….not people that disrespect us or our work.

I wish I had the time to explain to each and every one of you why we decided not to request your VA C-File and look into your case further…but there are so many Veterans contacting us that there is not enough time in the day to do this.

If, however, we request your C-File and decline representation after a C-File review, I will take however much time you need to explain our decision to you. All you have to do is ask my team and they’ll get you on my calendar for a phone call.

One of the things that sets the Attig Law Firm apart from VSOs, and even a lot of attorneys, is that we absolutely will not offer representation to a Veteran or survivor without first reviewing the complete C-File from the VA Regional Office.

This is not the case with every veterans benefits law firm: be very suspicious of a VA disability law firm that takes your case without looking at your C-File.

Most C-Files look pretty much like this. Click on the image to learn how one VFW representative took advantage of this mess – and REALLY SCREWED his Veteran in the process.

Nearly every case where I see a Vet “left hanging” in a VA claim by an attorney, it turns out that the attorney didn’t know much about the claim until after he/she was in over her head.

Other law firms have bought my Guidebooks and are copying my processes. That’s great, if you ask me…mimicry is the highest form of flattery. Just remember that you can’t copy the ALF Vision, and you can’t reverse-engineer the value that the Attig Law Firm adds to a Veteran’s appeal.

Rest assured, when we get the C-File, we use Chris Attig’s unique process for evaluating your case, and read/study every page of your C-File to find the reason your claim/appeal is taking so long, and to see if we can help at all.

Step #4A: We Offer Legal Representation.

If we decide to offer representation, we’ll send you an attorney-client agreement and some other documents, and will jump right into your VA Disability Benefits claim and get to work.

Here’s how our fees work – this is really brief, so don’t worry. If we offer representation I will explain this in detail to you.

Is it good strategy to have a VA Benefits Lawyer at the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims? Click on this image to find out.

* If we make an offer to represent you in your VA claim/appeal, our typical fee is contingency – between 20% and 30% of the past-due benefits, depending on the complexity of your case and the time we anticipate we will need to get closure on your VA disability claim or appeal. If we don’t recover past-due benefits in your claim or appeal, we don’t get paid.

*If we represent a Veteran before the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims, we typically do not charge the Veteran anything out of pocket for that representation. If we “substantially prevail” in your Veterans Court appeal, we can petition the Court to order the VA to pay your attorney fees for you through the EAJA (Equal Access to Justice Act) Fund.

* We will usually advance the costs of the case: postage, filing fees, medical expert retainers, travel costs, etc. Our clients agree to reimburse those expenses out of their share of the past-due benefits.

Step #4B: We Decline to Offer Representation.

If, after reviewing the C-File, an attorney at the Attig Law Firm determines that we are willing to offer to represent you, I will take however much time you need to explain our decision to you. All you have to do is ask my team and they’ll get you on my calendar for a phone call.

I offer a FREE eBook to help you learn the 8 Things You Should Know Before Hiring an Attorney for your VA Claim.

Tips to help me learn more about your case.

Here are some tips to increase the likelihood that I will be able to get back in touch with you about your VA Disability Claim:

A. Take your time and give me a good explanation of what is going on in your case, and why you need legal help.

B. If you know what level of the VA Claims Process (VARO, BVA CAVC, Fed Circuit) your claim is at, that would be helpful for me to know.

C. Be sure to include an email address. Email communication is vital to the ALF. If you don’t have an email account – get a free gmail, yahoo or hotmail account. It will greatly increase our ability to get a better picture of what kind of help you need and whether we can provide it.

D. Don’t try to “sell” me on your case. Just tell me the facts, and let me make the best decision that I can after I learn the facts.

E. I look with extreme suspicion at cases that Veterans tell me are “turn-key” or “million dollar” cases.

First, I’m not looking to get rich: if I wanted to get rich I’d run for Congress. The alleged “million dollar case” is often a “White Whale” and isn’t tempting to me.

Second, I have never known a single VA case to be “easy” or “turnkey”…if it was, why would you be contacting me?

Here are types of cases that are of special interest to the Attig Law Firm:

Appeals to the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims:

The Veterans Court is so new that they don’t even have a Courthouse yet. Click on this image to learn more about the Veterans Court.

I really enjoy the work our Firm does before the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims.

We have a chance – because of the newness of the Court (it’s only 40 years old…a YOUNG court in the eyes of the law) – to help shape the body of law governing Veterans claims.

SO…if you have a recent BVA decision in hand, I want you to pick up the phone and call us right away at (866) 627 – 7764. Tell my team you have a BVA decision you want to appeal to the CAVC, and they will take it from there.

We’re going to want to see a copy of your BVA decision, too, so feel free to email it to me at vetlaw@attiglawfirm.com and I’ll make sure my team gets you a call back ASAP!

Survivor Benefit Claims.

This is one of the many Veterans Books I will release in 2015. Click on the image to find out how to get your copy FIRST.

When he died some years after the war, VSOs and the VA gave my grandmother some really bad advice, and as a result, she was denied access to life changing benefits for herself and her children. I take a special interest in reviewing Survivor Benefits claims – particularly the surviving spouses of combat veterans.

I can’t take every Survivor’s case, but I do make a special effort to scrutinize them very closely before deciding whether or not to offer representation.

Vietnam Veterans & Agent Orange Claims.

The words that a Vietnam Special Forces Veteran used to describe Agent Orange haunt me. Visit this page to start gathering resources in your Agent Orange claim or appeal.

Contact the Attig Law Firm if you are seeking VA Disability Compensation for the injuries (physical or mental) that occurred as a result of a rape in service.

OIF, OEF, and Desert Storm Veterans.

I served with many of you – not in theater, but before these wars started. Some of you didn’t come home.

Some of you came home very different. If you served in Desert Storm, Operation Iraqi Freedom, or Operation Enduring Freedom, be sure to let me know.

Heck, if we knew each other in the military, let me know that, too.

* This post initially appeared on the Veterans Law Blog on May 21, 2013. It has been updated with MORE current information.

]]>http://www.attiglawfirm.com/shoot/va-compensation-review-process/feed/2New Feature on the Veterans Law Blog – the Veterans Law Bookstore.http://www.attiglawfirm.com/communicate/veterans-law-bookstore/
http://www.attiglawfirm.com/communicate/veterans-law-bookstore/#respondTue, 16 Dec 2014 15:32:03 +0000http://www.attiglawfirm.com/?p=5656The idea of a blog fascinates me – the fact that we can reach 30,000 Veterans (yes, we topped that number in November 2014) through a single website is in a lot of ways, mind-numbing.

Every day that I work on this blog, I learn something new about how websites work.

Every day, week and month, I try to implement new technology and tools to make it easier for Veterans to find the information they need to take back the power in their VA Claim.

Is the Bookstore Secure?

Yes. The technology behind the Veterans Law Blog bookstore is PCI Compliant – this is the top level of security that is available to an eCommerce store of this size.

Does the Bookstore have a Paypal purchase option?

Not yet.

I hope to add this option in 2015, but right now, we have to write some software to allow Paypal to efficiently interact with the store.

Do you offer any Veterans Law Guidebooks in hard copy form?

Not yet. I am – as we speak – negotiating with book publishers to make the Veterans Law Guidebooks available in paper format, for those of you that don’t like reading eBooks.

What do you do with the revenue from book sales?

I’m not writing and selling Veterans Law Books to get rich.

Frankly, if writing and publishing a book was free, I would give them to you for free. But, since it costs money to research, write, publish and distribute these eBooks and Videos, I do charge reasonable prices for the knowledge and information and experience that is packed into these books and VA Disability claims training guides.

But know this: every dollar of net revenue from the sale of Veterans Law Guidebooks goes – not into my pocket – but into a fund that pays for the resources to make MORE books available.

And I will announce these discounts using the popups that appear on the Veterans Law Blog.

Where can I find out about new releases?

Click on the “Coming Soon” link on the Bookstore Main Menu, and you will find a list of the books that I am working on and plan to release in 2015.

I am updating this section over the next couple of weeks – I am working on 10 new Guidebooks and VA disability claim and appeal training packages to be released in 2015.

I will release them based on the number of people that sign up for alert emails – if more people are calling for my Veterans Survivor Claims Handbook, I will work harder to get that released sooner.

What’s Coming in 2015?

My goal in 2015 is to make even MORE information available to help Veterans Take Back the Power in their VA Claim.

I get emails every day from Veterans that are using this material to improve their claims and get out of the VA Claims and Appeals Hamster Wheel, like this one last week:

“I just wanted to write to let you know that because of your assistance we were able to apply and receive full disability benefits from the Navy…I just want to thank you mostly for giving me help in a trying time…There’s not very much information out there on this issue, and you simply walking me through the steps and processes gave me great confidence in moving forward to file a claim.”

]]>http://www.attiglawfirm.com/communicate/veterans-law-bookstore/feed/0This Video Can Help You Get the VA to WANT to Grant Your Claim.http://www.attiglawfirm.com/communicate/get-to-the-point-write-better-va-claim-video/
http://www.attiglawfirm.com/communicate/get-to-the-point-write-better-va-claim-video/#commentsThu, 25 Sep 2014 10:05:33 +0000http://www.attiglawfirm.com/?p=5060Some time ago, I was talking to a Veteran who was preparing his Notice of Disagreement (aka, the NOD) to a VA Ratings Decision that denied – again – his claim for service connection of certain disabilities he incurred in military service.

He’d been working on the NOD for a few weeks, and when he called, this is what he said:

“Chris, I just don’t have a clue where to start. There’s so much I want to say, but when I start writing I just get mad. I end up writing a rant that wouldn’t even persuade ME to grant my own claim. Now, I’m just burnt out and exhausted and feel like its easier to give up than to file this NOD.”

You know that feeling, don’t you? Lord knows, I did when I received my first claim denial.

His next statement gave me an idea:

“Chris, there has to be something that can help me and other Veterans get through this nightmare”.

I Recorded a Video to Teach You How to Write Better.

I’ve been giving a talk to small groups of Veterans for some time now. I called the talk: “Get to the P.O.I.N.T – Better Writing in Your VA Claim”.

If you have any COOL title ideas for these books – or any ways I can help you IMPROVE your VA Claim – add them in the comment section below. If I use your title, I will send you a FREE copy of the eBook, and a special surprise that will recognize you as a “Veterans Warrior”.

Which of these Veterans Law Guidebook Should I Release FIRST?*

How the VA views PTSD Claims

How to Prepare for a BVA Hearing

The Veterans Survivor Guidebook

Military Sexual Trauma Resources

Get to the P.O.I.N.T. (Chris Attig's Guides to writing more persuasively to the VA)

10 Court Cases that Every Veteran Needs to Know

10 Common BVA Errors & how to deal with them.

8 Steps to Improve Your VA Claim

Agent Orange Exposure Claims and Appeals

Which of these Veterans Law Guidebook Should I Release SECOND?

How the VA views PTSD Claims

How to Prepare for a BVA Hearing

The Veterans Survivor Guidebook

Military Sexual Trauma Resources

Get to the P.O.I.N.T. (Chris Attig's Guides to writing more persuasively to the VA)

10 Court Cases that Every Veteran Needs to Know

10 Common BVA Errors & how to deal with them.

8 Steps to Improve Your VA Claim

Agent Orange Exposure Claims and Appeals

Which of these Veterans Law Guidebook Should I Release THIRD?

How the VA views PTSD Claims

How to Prepare for a BVA Hearing

The Veterans Survivor Guidebook

Military Sexual Trauma Resources

Get to the P.O.I.N.T. (Chris Attig's Guides to writing more persuasively to the VA)